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4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
Written in the 80s, this book needs to be updated scientifically. But biggest reason I couldn’t get thru it was due to the constant use of Eskimo to refer to the Indiginous Peoples of Canada and Alaska. It wasn’t done with malice, just a product of the times so I tried to push past it, but I just couldn’t.
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Besides many other striking reflections, Lopez’ idea that the North (and by extension, any landscape) has the alternative value of being the cause for such deep reflection about the nature of being, was the one that I took away from this reading. A very rereadable book.
What a book. It doesn't just answer questions I didn't know I had (what exactly is a north pole? How do muskoxen go about life? What colour is ice over dark water in a blue sky?) but it asked a lot of questions that I appreciated - how do you live well on the land? What is our obligation to it? How do we reach a point where dignity of living beings is innate and perceived, not circumstantial and invented?
"Our obligation toward it then becomes simple: to approach with an uncalculating mind, with an attitude of regard." Simple, but not easy at all. I did often wonder about all the things that might have changed about it in the 40 years since the present tense parts of this book, and there's a haunting thought.
I did bump up against some of its finer points, and some of the typographical errors in this edition are a real shame. But what a book. What an approach to land and geography and the inhabitants.
"Our obligation toward it then becomes simple: to approach with an uncalculating mind, with an attitude of regard." Simple, but not easy at all. I did often wonder about all the things that might have changed about it in the 40 years since the present tense parts of this book, and there's a haunting thought.
I did bump up against some of its finer points, and some of the typographical errors in this edition are a real shame. But what a book. What an approach to land and geography and the inhabitants.
informative
slow-paced
hopeful
informative
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
Baltimore City is under a stay-at-home order. I drive bread rolls around to my friends. When my husband comes home from work, I put my hand on his forehead to check. At least I’ve had books.
I’m going to take their portraits this month in my local cafe. Usually, the place is busy, full of hipsters bouncing their babies and retirees flipping flashcards for the languages they finally have time to learn. Local art is hung on the wall - you can buy an abstract pencil drawing for $36 - and the banana peanut butter chai smoothie is the best thing on the menu. Now, the place is quiet. Sunlight filters in from the street. The air still smells a little bit like coffee. My husband used to love the bagels here. The two-seater tabletop by the window facing The Avenue is open - I’ve never seen it open before - so I position my camera behind the reaching leaves of hanging plants and wait for my subjects to show.
Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez wants to have his picture taken outside. There’s a back porch, so out we go, but it’s not a majestic vista. He peers out at the dumpsters and the rear ends of the neighboring rowhomes and frowns. The wildlife here isn’t narwhals and polar bears but rats and red finches. He sets his jaw in a firm line and makes his eyes go icy and distant, like Lief Erikson’s. “Once, a crew of shipwrecked men survived by bleeding each other into a boot and drinking the blood,” he says. This is the thing that will stand out the most of all the things he says. He also knows a lot about caribou and Eskimos and nordic explorations and ice, but it is the image of the huddled crew drinking each other’s blood out of a boot that haunts me. He smiles as I take his picture in the sunlight. Beneath that smile, most of his meaning remains submerged.
(...I read 11 books in May 2020 and imagined each one as a character in a Living Book Review. Sign up here to receive the Living Books Reviews newsletter in your inbox each month! https://mailchi.mp/53d716a27eaf/living-book-reviews)
I’m going to take their portraits this month in my local cafe. Usually, the place is busy, full of hipsters bouncing their babies and retirees flipping flashcards for the languages they finally have time to learn. Local art is hung on the wall - you can buy an abstract pencil drawing for $36 - and the banana peanut butter chai smoothie is the best thing on the menu. Now, the place is quiet. Sunlight filters in from the street. The air still smells a little bit like coffee. My husband used to love the bagels here. The two-seater tabletop by the window facing The Avenue is open - I’ve never seen it open before - so I position my camera behind the reaching leaves of hanging plants and wait for my subjects to show.
Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez wants to have his picture taken outside. There’s a back porch, so out we go, but it’s not a majestic vista. He peers out at the dumpsters and the rear ends of the neighboring rowhomes and frowns. The wildlife here isn’t narwhals and polar bears but rats and red finches. He sets his jaw in a firm line and makes his eyes go icy and distant, like Lief Erikson’s. “Once, a crew of shipwrecked men survived by bleeding each other into a boot and drinking the blood,” he says. This is the thing that will stand out the most of all the things he says. He also knows a lot about caribou and Eskimos and nordic explorations and ice, but it is the image of the huddled crew drinking each other’s blood out of a boot that haunts me. He smiles as I take his picture in the sunlight. Beneath that smile, most of his meaning remains submerged.
(...I read 11 books in May 2020 and imagined each one as a character in a Living Book Review. Sign up here to receive the Living Books Reviews newsletter in your inbox each month! https://mailchi.mp/53d716a27eaf/living-book-reviews)
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
adventurous
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
adventurous
informative
reflective
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Colonisation